Travel The World Now, Not Later

We all get wrapped up in our daily lives and put our dreams of traveling on the back burner. But what if one day you decide to make them a priority? It is indeed possible. Chelsea and Tien will tell you how.

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It’s fairly easy to fall into the motions of daily life. Getting up, going to work, having a drink with friends, going to bed and doing it all over again. For the past year, we’ve been acclimating to our new jobs and learning how to be independent in a new city. Call it millennial angst, or post-college blues, but there was always a tugging feeling pulling us to look for more. For an entire year, our lives felt monotonous. We took every opportunity to escape from our daily routines hoping to satisfy our hunger for excitement. Are you looking for an adventure to shake things up? We think we may have figured out how you can travel the world!

When weekend trips and new hobbies still weren’t fulfilling our need for more, we found ourselves constantly coming back to the dreams we had. We wanted to travel the world and see different places. Why escape our reality just for a weekend when we could go out and really live our lives? What started as wanderlust conversations quickly became a plan. For weeks, we discussed the countries we’d like to travel to, created action plans for telling our jobs, and searched for different ways to make money remotely. Would we really be able to do this? Can we travel the world? It was a constant back and forth of wanting to do it and being too afraid to go through with it.

One day, we saw one-way tickets to London were $130 and thought, “If not now, then when?” After a flurry of excited text messages and bank account checks to make sure it was feasible, we clicked pay. While we both felt anxiety for what was to come, we also felt liberated and bright-eyed for this next chapter. With only a few months to figure out logistics, we hit the ground running and prepped as much as we possibly could to be ready to fly out.

@chels_clair

This trip has already challenged us emotionally, mentally, and financially. Are you feeling apprehensive and wonder how we managed to pack our bags to travel the world? Here are a few tips that helped us see it through:

Mentally:

Mindfully force yourself to stop saying, “one day,” and figure out how to make it happen “today.”

Create a solid game-plan. You don’t have to have all the details straightened out, just the big ones. Figure out a rough idea of the path you’re going to take around the world, how much money each country is going to cost, and what are you going to do with all of your personal property while you’re gone?

Emotionally:

Find someone you think you’d travel well with and hold each other accountable.

Tell as many people as you can. Create a support system of folks who can share tips, connect you with friends around the world and provide you with emotional support. When we questioned any part of our trip, budgeting, the great unknown, etc., there was always someone there to hype us up or provide us with a good life talk to get us through.

Prepare yourself for a flexible lifestyle where anything can happen. The entire point of this trip is to go with the flow.

Financially:

Do your research. Think about the places you want to travel to. What’s your daily budget? How much money do you think you’ll have saved up? Do you have bills you’ll need to pay while you’re abroad?

If you’ve got lots of time and are flexible in your schedule, look into volunteering. Websites like Workaway connect people in different countries and allow you to volunteer doing various things in return for free room and board.

If you’re traveling with a lot of people, look into places that charge by the room and not per person.

We’d also recommend thinking about your food. Pick which meals you can cook on your own to save money. For example, we plan on buying granola and fruit to have for breakfast each day instead of going out to eat every morning.

Do competitive pricing on everything from different housing locations, to tour packages and transportation.

@chels_clair

Time to Travel the World!

So far we plan on going to Europe, South Africa, Asia, Australia and South Africa. We’ll finance our travels by working remotely. Since we both come from an advertising background, we’ve been able to use our network to navigate those opportunities. It’s been a little difficult to find something more steady and regular. However, we have picked up projects and blogging opportunities along the way. You definitely have to hustle to find remote and freelance gigs, but utilize your network and don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you’re unsure about what you could do remotely, we definitely recommend picking up some skills in your free time like coding or trying your hand at writing a blog.

We encourage everyone to make a plan for their own growth if they feel themselves falling into a monotonous routine. Take some time to think about the things you’ve always wanted to accomplish and take the first step…asking yourself, “Why not?” And when you get the courage to do so, you we’re here with your discounted flight to see the world.